Grad school - Waitlists, Offers and Deadlines, Oh My!

Grouch

I applied to a couple of Master's programs. I got put on a waitlist for my first choice, and was offered a spot at my second. I have two weeks to decide whether to accept the offer, but I may not hear back from my first choice about my application until some time in May. Do I tell the people at my first choice about being offered a spot at the second?

TychoCelchuuu

I don't know MA etiquette super well or anything but I think it would be totally okay to contact your first choice and say "hey, the deadline for accepting my other offers is X, so can you maybe tell me yes or no before then?"

k-maps

What? I think they have to tell you before April 15 is the law? For this exact reason?

LadyM

Nope, no law that I'm aware of. When I transferred to a 4-year college for my bachelor's, they didn't notify me of my acceptance until JULY. (And I had a bunch of other schools waiting. Oh, also the July-school literally disconnected their customer service line because they were getting "too many phone calls". I kid you not.)

I would contact them and a) make your interest in your program clear while b) explaining you have decisions that need to be made.

Grouch

k-maps wrote: »

What? I think they have to tell you before April 15 is the law? For this exact reason?

FWIW, I'm Canadian, and my first choice program is overseas.

k-maps

Okay sorry, the law I was thinking of is specific to grad schools, and it states that the schools have to give you until April 15 to decide.

http://www.uni.edu/~gotera/gradapp/results.htm

Doesn't help much in your case, but good to know.

LadyM

Wow, so there really is a US law? I have learned something this day!

flowerhoney

Huh... that's interesting because I was just accepted to two grad schools and put on the waitlist for another. When I asked the school I was waitlisted for when I could expect to hear back about a spot, they told me it might not be until august. Since being on the waitlist means I'm waiting for enough people to give up their spot. Also one of the schools I got in to hasn't given me a deadline at all, in fact my acceptance letter is still on its way!

Maybe its because this is art school?

I would call you first choice and see what can be done. Its very possible that there's nothing they can do, if they choose to leave the waitlist open for the next few months. Cuz like I said, you're basically waiting for enough people to decline so you can move off the waitlist. So the program could be totally full and they might keep the waitlist open just in case someone backs out at the last minute

But this is all speculation, only the school can tell you what's up. For sure let them know that you've been accepted somewhere else but this is your first choice. See what info you can get!

k-maps

Actually, I'm not sure. I think it's just an agreement that a lot of schools decided to subscribe to? At any rate, I've never encountered a graduate school that forced someone to make a decision before that date, and that is just the minimum time, you could possibly defer until later than that. Always call and ask, never feel wary about verifying your options.

_J_

Grouch wrote: »

I applied to a couple of Master's programs. I got put on a waitlist for my first choice, and was offered a spot at my second. I have two weeks to decide whether to accept the offer, but I may not hear back from my first choice about my application until some time in May. Do I tell the people at my first choice about being offered a spot at the second?

I doubt that your first choice would take you off the waitlist if you ask, so there is likely no harm in asking. Be polite. Don't be demanding.

If they are dicks to you in response to your request, then it likely isn't the sort of environment you would want to join anyway.

lifeincognito

As long as you only sign paperwork stating you wish to attend the school you should be okay to break that later with some sort of penalty of a processing fee. Graduate school becomes far more complicated if you agree to a commitment to be a Teaching Assistant or a Research Assistant. Ask each school what their policy on accepting, but later backing out is if they do not already clearly document that on their websites or in any information that they have provided for you.

Each acceptance letter usually lists someone to direct your questions towards so it shouldn't be hard to get timely responses. This sort of thing happens all the time and I am sure your second choice would love to work things out as quickly as possible themselves so they could also let in someone on their wait-list as well.

Anecdotal.... I have friends at universities that say this sort of thing happens all the time to applicants where money isn't a factor in their decision.

Good luck.

Grouch

Thanks for the input, folks.

@ceres, you can lock this.